Stay
by ruinedshadows
Summary: Steve Leonard. It had been two whole years since the name had come up, but Annie Shan could surely never forget such a strange individual. And when she suddenly meets him again on a cold September night, what is she to say? StevexAnnie, Book 11 Spoilers
1. Two Whole Years

Full Summary: Steve Leonard. It had been two whole years since the name had come up, but Annie Shan could surely never forget such a strange individual. And when she suddenly meets him again on a cold September night, what is she to say? StevexAnnie, SPOILERS to Book 11, T for language. First romance fic I've written in a while, forgive me if I'm a bit rusty.

* * *

_Morning comes slow today _

_Memories push through from yesterday _

_Where will I be tomorrow?_

_What do I have to show?_

_From my life_

_Stay _

_I need you here for a new day to break _

_Stay _

_I want you near like a shadow in my wake _

- "Stay" - Poets of the Fall

* * *

Steve Leonard. It had been two whole years since the name had come up. Two years since that one strange day in August when he suddenly took off on a train, shouting out the window about how he was going to slay a vampire and become a hero. Something about me admired his tenacity, even then at the age of 14, and perhaps even now. Of course, back then, I thought it was a little strange that he still believed in vampires after all those years, but now I knew it probably had something to do with Darren.

I remember that old rumor about that one time just a year after Darren's death how he suddenly blew up about how useless algebra would be to him six years from now when he was fresh off his fiftieth kill. Or the rumor about how not six months later he was caught sharpening a wooden stake in woodshop. Or the terrible tale of the poor cat he'd disected in front of his whole chemistry class in the eighth grade. And least I forget the one about him supposedly threatening to "hack off [his teacher's] head and replace it with the flag in front of the school to display it to everyone who [passed] by" (exact words. Supposedly.) Eventually, they took him to a clinic run by people in all-white suits and told us all that he'd be "Better in no time". "Better". Sure. He marched right out of the clinic in less than a month and sure enough, ten weeks later, the rumors of him and his vampire obsession were back up and running at full speed.

But as soon as he hit 16, the boy took his whole water jug of savings and took a train to the other side of the country, and then a boat to France to continue his trip. They later found a journal in his room detailing the specific way he was going to gut open "his" heart, precisely the angle the stake would go in, the perfect conditions for the wood and for the garlic, the type of knife he'd need to cut off his head and exactly how much it would cost in five years (he allegedly had made a rather involved graph of the direction the economy was most likely to go in and what affect it would have on the knife industry).

Everyone in the neighborhood knew about Steve the Crazy, Steve the Psycho, Steve the Lunatic, Steve the This, Steve the That. And somehow I always felt like I was the only one who had any idea as to _why_ he was the way he was. _Why_ he had such a lust for blood. _Why_ his obsession persisted beyond those childlike years. And for some reason I hadn't quite had it figured out until that one fateful night coming home from work when I finally saw him again.

It was a cold night in late September. The leaves were beginning to fall, the air was starting to have a slight bite, the days were putting themselves to rest a bit sooner. Thus, when it was eight at night and I was travelling home from work on foot in the twilight, I was starting to feel just a bit more on edge.

I sighed deeply to test the coldness of the air. Sure enough, a whitish steam exhaled from my lips in a cloud in front of my eyes, warming my nose and sending a welcomed chill down my spine. The words of a song that had played on the radio a bit earlier rang through my head pleasantly. The tmp-tap of my heels against the pavement unconsciously timed themselves to the beat.

As the last inches of light creeped out of the sky, the uneasy feeling in my stomach began to stir. I'd always had a strange fear of the dark; I couldn't help it. I hid under the gracious streetlamps as though they were giving me some kind of prediction. I laughed to myself nervously and let my eyes fall to the sidewalk below. What did I need protection from? This was a quiet neighborhood. Nothing strange has ever really happened hear for two years. Two whole years...

That's when I saw him. Heard him, rather, but that was beside the point.

"Annie Shan? Is that you?"

I literally jumped. My eyes shot up in front of me, searching for the origin of the noise. All I saw was a spot of light under a streetlamp and no one else. A voice behind me chuckled. My head whipped toward its direction - the streetlamp right behind me.

Sure enough, there was the trouble-maker from two years ago. Somehow I wasn't surprised. I really should've been, looking back on it now.

"Too lost in your own thoughts to notice someone you haven't seen for two whole years?" He asked. I nodded shyly. He laughed lightly to himself. He sounded just like he had two years ago. No... maybe his voice was a bit deeper. His hair had gone completely white over the years, which wasn't strange. He'd been well on his way to a full head of white hair the last time I'd seen him. He tossled his hair and added, "Now that I think about it, you were there to see me off, weren't you?"

I blushed deep red. "Wh-what are you implying?"

He grinned. "I'm implying," he said, leening closer to me, probably just to make me blush deeper, "that you had something for me, didn't you?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but the words wouldn't come. I wanted to make a clever rebuttal about how practically half the town was there to see the departure of Steve the Insane, but that'd be an exaggeration and he'd know it. So what came out of my mouth instead sounded something like, "Buh... you... you're... y-you can't-"

"Be here?" He answered. Not knowing what else to do, I nodded dumbly. He smiled knowingly. "Ah, yes, but I am, aren't I? I was just away for a short while, trying to figure out the ways of the world. I've become enlightened since then, you know?" He did seem more mature than the last time I'd seen him... but I knew Steve. He was a natural when it came to acting. The sinking feeling in my stomach worsened.

"So why aren't you out there instead of here? Are you backtracking or something?" I asked, flustered.

He pouted. "How rude of you. Maybe I like it here. Or maybe I plan on going back to school, making things up with my Mom, letting the nice people in the white suits 'fix me up' and restore my reputation somehow." He head the expression for a good second before doubling over in laughter. "Yeah right!" He hollered.

Worried he'd cause a commotion, I shushed him. "Well if not for any of those things, then why _are_ you here?"

He calmed himself down quickly and sighed. He was close enough that the steam from his breath nearly would've reached my face, had I been tall enough to see him eye to eye. "Evidently it's because I feel I've left some things behind." He smiled at me. Not one of his sly smiles he always had on while he was acting, but one far more sincere. "Like you, for one."

I shivered and adjusted the scarf hugging my neck so as to pretend I was shivering from the cold. I couldn't tell yet if it was a good shiver or a scared one. "Why... why me?"

He leaned a bit to pick up my hand and lightly pecked it. "Why else?"

I blushed even deeper than I had before. Snatching my hand from his, I immediately turned around and headed back in the direction of my house. How dare he show up out of the blue after two whole years and just openly flirt with me like that!

"Wait, Annie," he started again, clutching my shoulder with what seemed to be less of force and more of comfort. He'd somehow managed to catch up to me without making a sound.

I shrugged him off of me. "What do you want?"

"Listen to me, Annie," he pleaded. His eyes were surprisingly soft. I took a step back involuntarily. "Just give me a chance. I swear I'll never do anything to hurt you. I've learned better than to follow petty grudges and superstitions like I had in the past. You know about what happened between Darren and me, more than everyone else in this godforsaken town, anyway."

"What about it?" I asked nervously.

"You're like a co-conspirator to me, Annie." The way he said my name... I didn't think he was capable of such softness. "All I want is to set things straight over all this nonsense. I know it's been six years since his untimely death, but... I suppose it just takes a while to get over some things." He sighed. His gaze momentarily dropped to the ground. He closed his eyes for a second, then looked back to me. "Please, Annie. All I'm looking for here is a bit of closure. Would you give that to me? Help me finally be rid of my demons?"

I don't know what possessed me to nod, but I did. I was entranced by his stare, something I hadn't felt for two whole years.

He smiled graciously. "Thank you, Annie." He lifted my hand again to his lips and kissed it gently. "Thank you so much."

I smiled back. I wanted to say he didn't have to thank me, but I blinked for just too long and he disappeared. Suddenly I was standing under an anonymous streetlamp in the mere dawn of a cold late September night. I blinked again. Turned around. Three-hundred-sixty degrees. Above my head. Behind a nearby bench. He was gone! Vanished! Dissolved! I'd been gyped by a ghost! Finessed by a phantom! Bilked by a banshee, and various other alliterations.

There was no trace of the white-haired troublemaker from two whole years ago that had stood before me just moments before. Befuddled beyond belief, I turned in the direction of my house, shook my head so as to snap out of my confusion, and headed back home, unable to define the feeling of emptiness that my stomach had then held.

* * *

((A/N: Ah, I love this couple~ It's such a shame Mr. Shan never did much with them. This story is basically what I think happened to him. If I ever get that far, it'll eventually coincide with my other story, _The Gibsellent Diaries_. Or, rather, it'll be canon with it. In other words, Stevey's relationship with Annie is meant to go like this, in my mind. 3 I can't wait to write the rest of this! It's going to be so much fun~

((So let me know what you think. I'll probably continue this regardless of how many I reviews I get, but I still like to hear back from you guys. :) Thanks for reading!

((~Elly))


	2. Streetlamp

((A/N: This chapter has been expressly dedicated to TodayWasAFairytale on DA. She whipped me into gear and reminded me that I'd promised I'd get this done by the end of last week on there, and then, predictably, managed to fail. GO ME.

((Now I'm making good on that promise and getting this chapter up. Hope you all like it! I'll make sure you get your StevexAnnie fixes, all of you. Myself, included! 3

((Also: I hope no one minds my use of the word "trousers" here. I'm American, but I like "trousers" better in this case. "Pants" just kind of seems out of place. Oh, and if anyone's wondering, I do happen to be talking about _Steve_'s trousers here. Enticed? Should be~3))

* * *

_It's all a game_

_Avoiding failure when true colors will bleed._

_All in the name_

_Of misbehavior_

_And the things we don't need._

_I lust for after no disaster can touch_

_Touch us anymore._

_And more than ever I hope to never fall_

_Where enough is not the same it was before._

- "Carnival of Rust" - Poets of the Fall

* * *

That night I'd had trouble falling asleep. I couldn't stop thinking of _Steve_. His face... his voice... his touch... his _touch_. And at the same time I couldn't keep myself from worrying about whether it was real or if I'd simply imagined it all. I prayed it wasn't the latter.

I didn't remember falling asleep, but I awoke to the sound of a blaring, insensitive alarm clock regardless. I then proceeded to lug myself over to the bathroom, hurl a lazy handful of water at my face, and slap myself awake. It took twice the amount of caffeine to wake the other half of me up before I could deem myself awake enough to be trusted not to accidentally walk into any streetlamps on the way to school.

And I probably came devilishly close to walking into one of those lamps, anyway. But it wasn't because I was half-asleep, though. No, it was simply that impossible to get him off my mind. I felt myself sigh dreamily several times on the walk to school, daydreaming of him meeting me again on that same trail.

I daydreamed right on through homeroom, and through most of my other classes. Perhaps due to a combination of him and of my lack of sleep, I found myself unable to answer correctly any questions my teachers asked of me. Not even in what were normally my strongest subjects was I able to concentrate. Maybe I was curious about his strange behavior, maybe I was eager to find out how he would contact me next. Or maybe I really was falling for him...

... _Nahhhh_.

* * *

If I'd expected the white-haired man to find me in any specific way, romantic or otherwise, I'd probably not been expecting this.

I drifted through work dreamily, although admittedly with my consciousness more intact than it'd been in school. I walked out through the back entrance like I always did, not wanting to be seen striding off through the front entrance in my waitress's uniform. The sun was setting again, just as it had the day before, save for being a bit lower now.

All was going as it should've been on a normal day, and I'd even begun to forget that yesterday's odd excursion.

And that was when...

"_Pssst_. Hey!'

I didn't hear him at first.

"_Pssssssssssssssssst_! Annie! Hello!"

At the mention of my name, my head whipped around.

And that was when I found him. Hanging from a streetlamp. _By his trousers_.

"Hey, Annie! Mind giving me a hand?" Steve asked shakily.

I was understandably dumbfounded. The lamp he was hanging from was the first streetlamp on the road leading back to my house. Normally, it would've normally been blinking, but it didn't shine tonight. I assumed it'd finally gone out, but apparently not. The still-blinking light shined dramatically on the back of his head, making his hair look like a white halo upon his head and causing his face to be all but completely hidden from view. He and the lamp shook in a rhythm resembling that of a pendulum.

I closed my slackjaw mouth, blinked furiously, and corrected my posture, hoping to recompose myself. I looked to the ground and took a deep breath. I then looked back up to him with a clear expression and said, "Mr. Leonard, is there any particular reason that you're hanging from that streetlamp by your trousers so precariously?"

He laughed uneasily. "Well, I'm very glad you asked, Miss Shan. You see," he cleared his throat in an attempt to somehow redeem himself in his situation, "I meant to meet you right after you finished work. I waited patiently on top of the restaurant, unseen by the masses below. I got a little bored, and decided to try jumping from here to the lamppost."

I cocked an incredulous eyebrow. "It worked the first few times, I swear!" He defended himself. I nodded. Fair enough.

"Anyway, as you can see, I kind of miscalculated one jump, _aaaaaaand_... well, yeah. Here I am." He coughed. "Kind of awkward, uh?"

I rolled my eyes. It was hard to keep a straight face in these conditions. "Yes. Kind of." I turned around again and began to head off home without him.

"W-wait!" He stuttered. I stopped and looked back at him. "You can't just leave me here, can you? I thought we agreed that-"

"-That I'd help talk you through your past misguidances? I don't think helping you down from a streetlamp is included in that, _Steven_."

He flushed. He tried to stammer something out, but it just came out as a bunch of nonsense. Finally, he gave up and grumbled, "You sound just like my mother." He attempted to cross his arms stubbornly, but the end result in his state made him look more like he was hugging his shoulders awkwardly.

I couldn't take it any longer. I completely cracked up and burst into laughter. Luckily not many others were out in this particular section of the neighborhood at that time, so I didn't cause too much of a ruckus. I attempted several times to regain my composure, but the sight of Steve hanging from his trousers kept causing me to burst into another gigglefit. I think he had to crack a smile and laugh, too.

Eventually I managed to force myself to calm down. When I wiped my eyes clear of the tears of laughter and looked again to Steve, I found him smirking back at me devilishly. It wasn't a sinister smirk, but rather that of one who thinks he's one a long debate. "So," he mused, "care to help me down now?"

I sniffed back the last of the laughter, smiled sweetly, and shook my head. "No," I said simply, then turned back around and strode off evenly in the opposite direction from him.

"Wha-" he stammered. He yelled after me, ranting about a promise and some kind of something I owed him for some other reason. I heard him struggling with the lamp for a minute, and then a loud thump.

I turned around suddenly. The body of a man and the bright, flickering light above him presented themselves before me. I immediately worried. That fall was only maybe ten feet long, but he still fell on his face. I ran over to him, hoping to God that he wasn't dead.

I turned his body on its side and shook it, hoping for a response. "Steve!" I called to him. "Steve, please!" I called again. His shoulders bobbed lightly. I was thankful for the response. I smiled warmly. But then I heard his laughter, my smile quickly faded.

He laughed loudly. I blinked, staring back at him dumfoundedly. I met his eyes and realized only then how close we were at that moment. "You should've seen your face!" He grinned. He giggled and I thought of smacking him for a moment, but just then he coughed to the side. It was a pained cough. Clearly he'd been hurt by that fall somewhat.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

He coughed again and shook his head. "Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry." He didn't look fine to me!

But all those concerns froze in an instant. He looked to me warmly, brushing a lock of hair from my face with care. He mumbled something under his breath.

He must've thought I hadn't heard him, since he flinched when he saw my face completely flush. "What's wrong?" he asked, worried.

"'So beautiful'?" I didn't believe it.

He returned my red face and turned away. He swallowed hard. "I... don't know what you're talking about."

I involuntarily made a noise like laughter. He turned his head right back around. Then he suddenly looked confused. "Why are you crying, Annie?"

My name again. So soft on those lips...

He brushed a tear from my face. It was then that it hit me that I was crying. I wasn't sad, though. I held his hand and closed my eyes. "Nobody's ever called me beautiful before... at least, not like that, anyway." I shook my head.

He smiled with enough warmth to fill a cold cabin in winter. He wrapped his arms around me and whispered the sweetest three words I've ever heard into my ear.

I gasped. I held him back tightly. "Really?" I asked.

"Why would I say it if it weren't true, Annie?"

Another salty tear hit his back. He held me tighter. He repeated the words. I sighed dreamily.

"I love you."

* * *

I never wanted to leave him on that night. He led me back to my house, arm in arm. It was strange how quickly I'd fallen into his arms. The whole incident felt surreal at the time, though the feeling became worse later on.

I never doubted the verity of those words. The way he said them... the way my name rolled off his lips so effortlessly, as though it was the only name he wanted to repeat.

I never thought to doubt him. I never considered the inconsistencies that may've been there between the Steve I remembered and the Steve who loved me so.

I doubted I'd ever trust a man like him ever again after what quickly unfolded afterwards.

* * *

((A/N: MUAHAHAH~ Take THAT for an ending! D

((I'll leave what's coming as a surprise. I'll most definitely go for a lime for the inevitable conception of little baby Darius, seeing as I suck at writing smut and all. I won't complete cut everyone off, though. There'll be lots and lots of fluff here. 3 Stevey may seem a bit OOC at parts, but that's just his acting. Will I keep him a heartless bastard? Who knows. Perhaps that'll be up to you guys to decide~3

((I'm not setting a projection for when I'll get the next chapter up. Sometime within the next six months sounds reasonable, no? *SHOT*

((Okay, okay. I'll try for the end of the month. Good enough?

((Also, I love hearing back from you guys. Let me know what you think of the story so far. I love you all, you know that! 3 Best wishes to all and, again, thanks for reading,

((~Elly))


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